*Hello to all Our Members and Future Members!*



We do hope your new academic year has started off with a bang and you are
ready to avail yourselves of the many services we have to offer this year.
For those of you new to the Postgraduate Network, our aim is to bring
together postgraduate students in media, communication and cultural studies
from different intellectual traditions and cultural backgrounds to form
research, teaching and learning networks and also to ensure peer support. We
are supported by the Art Design Media Higher Education Academy Subject
Centre (ADM-HEA), which works to support us and also to enhance learning and
teaching in higher education.



We are hosting several events this year, the details of which can be found
on our website*: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/pgn/index.htm*



To mention a few:

1.                             New media and (new) media studies symposium
at Lancaster University on 21st November, 2008

2.                             The Challenge of New Media Forum: Teaching
and Learning in the New Media Ecology at University of the West of England
on 12th December, 2008.

3.                             Contemporary Queer Screen Cultures at the
University of Nottingham on 5th May, 2009



And a note to definitely put in your diaries, our *Annual MeCCSA
Postgraduate Conference*, the *ONLY PG* media conference in the UK, at
Bangor University on the 8th and 9th of July, 2009. Additionally, all papers
presented at the conference will have the opportunity to be published in our
own online peer-reviewed journal!



If you are not already a member of MeCCSA PGN, you SHOULD be! Membership is
*FREE*!!! All you have to do is send your e-mail with subscribe in the
subject line to our Communications Director, Yemisi Ogunleye at: *
[log in to unmask]**. *She will add you to our mailing list, and
in return you will receive weekly job posts, post-doctoral and doctoral
positions available, conference alerts, and key articles that address timely
issues in higher education in the UK.  Not only will you have the
opportunity to interact with many future employers and publishers at the PGN
conference, but you will also meet many more at the main MeCCSA conference,
hosted by Bradford University this coming January.  MeCCSA is taking early
bird registrations for the conference now through 7 November, 2008 and
standard registration by 5 December, 2008.**



Once you become a member of the Postgraduate Network, please, get involved!
Always wondered what it was like to host a one-day symposium? Let us know
what you would like to do; we'll walk you through the bid-process, and we'll
help pay for the costs! Simple as that! Want to run the annual conference in
2010? 2011? Let us know! We'll help cover the majority of the costs, and it
looks great on the CV!



If there is anything you need, anything we are not currently doing that
you'd like to see happen, please contact us and we'll see if we can provide
that support. Additionally, any feedback, positive or critical, please
e-mail our Secretary, Shelley Thompson at *[log in to unmask]*, who
will be keeping track of our progress this coming year.



See you at one of our events!





Ann Luce

Chair of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network

[log in to unmask]



*P.S. Please forward this letter onto two more people! Let's make sure all
postgrads have the opportunity to join the network! *